Bruises
by breakable-girls-and-boys
Summary: This work was inspired by a tumbler post from jensendaddy: maybe the little bruises and cuts that show up on your body seemingly out of nowhere are actually little injuries that happened to your soulmate and you get the same marks on your skin as them


The first time it happened, Holly just thought she'd run into something she didn't remember running into. It was a fairly large bruise, so it bothered her that she couldn't remember what she'd managed to run into. She wasn't the most coordinated person, but she wasn't super clumsy either.

From time to time, she'd get strange little bruises on her body, but she usually just wrote them off as mystery bruises.

Eventually, she mentioned the bruises to one of her friends at work.

"Jesus, how do I end up with all these bruises? I don't even remember bumping into anything this week!" Holly said.

Holly's coworker swiveled around in her chair and said, "You know, my cousin was telling me something the other day. What was it she said… Oh! Supposedly, there are people in the world who, whenever their soulmate gets hurt, or gets a bruise or a cut, the same bruises show up on their skin as well."

"So you think my mystery bruises are the result of my soulmate getting herself hurt?" Holly asked skeptically.

"It's possible!"

"Yeah, okay," she scoffed, returning to her paperwork.

Several weeks went by without another mystery bruise, and so Holly forgot about her worries.

* * *

Gail was out of breath, but she couldn't stop now. She watched the suspect round a corner into the alley just ahead and raced after him. From somewhere deep inside herself, she found the ability to push a little harder. She was gaining on him, and he was going down. Lunging forward, she tackled the suspect around the abdomen. Both parties fell to the concrete and skidded into the side of a dumpster. Gail freed her arms from under the suspect and went for her cuffs, but she wasn't fast enough. The man twisted, his elbow connecting with her jaw and sending her sprawling off of him.

Stunned, Gail attempted to find her bearings and stand, but the suspect had already obtained the edge he needed. He was on his feet and by the time Gail made it to her hands and knees. The suspect landed a hard kick against her ribs, knocking Gail down again. She felt the air leave her and struggled to suck oxygen back into her lungs. Gail felt like a fish out of water: gasping for breath but getting nothing. Her ears were ringing, but she heard faint footsteps on the concrete. She felt something come crashing down across her back. The world was going dark around her, but the last thing she heard before passing out was unmistakable: a single gunshot ringing through the alley.

Gail woke up to a frenzy of doctors and nurses buzzing around her. She tried to pull herself upright as she pawed at the oxygen mask on her face, but one of the staff pushed her back against the hospital bed. He replaced the mask she had set askew.

"You have to lay down and keep that mask on; we don't know the extent of your injuries yet," the staff member said. The light was blinding, but Gail could just make out the name on his badge: Tim.

She looked at Tim, who was talking to a paramedic who looked vaguely familiar. Flashes of people swarming around her in the back of an ambulance flooded back to her. She remembered the paramedic's face hovering over her, asking her questions, but she hadn't been able to speak.

She watched the two as they spoke.

"She was found down in the alley. Her partner said she was chasing a suspect and had caught up to the guy, said he could hear them fighting as he came around the corner. Apparently the guy picked up a 2x4 and hit her over the back before her partner intervened and shot the guy. We think he probably punched her, too. She has that nasty bruise forming on the left side of her jaw. She's got a large contusion over her left ribs as well, but no flail segments. The attacker wasn't a huge guy, but I'd guess around 200 pounds. Lung sounds were clear on the right and diminished on the left. We placed an 18 gauge IV in the left AC and we were able to hang fluids, but that's about all we had time for," the paramedic said.

"Okay," Tim replied. "Thank you."

The paramedic nodded and started to walk away, and Tim looked back down at her.

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked her.

Gail shook her head 'no'. She felt something cold moving around on her chest and then something prodded her side and she screamed out in pain.

"Lung sounds are clear on the right, but I'm not hearing anything on the left. I want a chest x-ray in here immediately. Let's get ready to put in a chest tube once we confirm there's a left pneumothorax. She's probably got some broken ribs too."

Gail couldn't tell where the voice came from, but she knew it wasn't good.

"What… h-h-h-hap.…wh-at…h-happened?" Gail managed to speak, but it exhausted her.

Tim looked down at her, almost as if he was surprised to see her lying there.

"You were attacked by the man you were chasing. He beat you up pretty good. You most likely have a collapsed lung and we need to put a tube into your chest to allow your lung to re-inflate," Tim's tone softened from "matter-of-fact", to one of compassion as he continued, "We are doing everything we can."

It finally occurred to Gail that she was naked in front of all these doctors, but she couldn't be too self-conscious for long. She felt a needle pierce her skin, but was immediately distracted by someone shining a light in her eyes.

"You've got an 18 in the right AC," was shouted from somewhere in the room.

Whoever was at her head added, "Pupils are equal and reactive."

Gail lifted her head as much as she could and looked down at her body. IV tubing was connected to both of her arms. From the corner of her eye, she saw something dark on her skin. She looked at her left side, she could see a dark blue-purple color across what she could see of her left side and creeping over her chest and upper abdomen.

Gail laid her head back on the bed and closed her eyes, she focused on the pain throughout her body, letting it remind her that she was still alive.

* * *

Gail used Oliver's phone to look at the damage to her face. She had a busted lip and a bruise across the left side of her jaw. It hurt to open her mouth. She'd been able to peek at her left side earlier; almost her entire left side was one big bruise from her hip to her armpit. There was a tube with gauze around it coming out of her chest, Tim had told her it was there to keep her lung from collapsing again and to drain any blood in her chest caused by the trauma. She'd been told by one of the nurses that she also had a bruise in the shape of a 2x4 across her back. Everything hurt.

"You should have waited for me," Oliver said. He hadn't looked at her since he'd walked in the room. He was currently staring at his feet.

"You were taking your sweet ass time, and I totally had him," Gail said.

"Seriously, Gail, he could have killed you. I couldn't live with myself if-if-if…"

"I'm a Peck, we don't go down easy," Gail joked, but the single laugh she let out hurt, and she cringed.

Oliver sighed. "Just, promise me you won't do this again. You scared the shit out of me, kid."

Gail looked him in the eye as she said, "I promise."

Oliver had been at the hospital as long as she'd been there, by her side whenever the doctors would let him in the room. He looked exhausted.

"Go home, Ollie. I'm okay. I promise not to die if you go home." Gail smirked through the pain.

Oliver put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, smiling.

* * *

Holly woke up sore. Her first thought was, I need to stop sleeping on the couch. She sat herself up and stretched. Immediately pain coursed through her side and she doubled over. She winced and let out a moan and felt a sting in her lip and an ache in her jaw. The fuck? she thought, What the hell happened?

She sat there while the pain in her side dulled down to a bearable ache. When she was ready, Holly got up and walked to the bathroom. What greeted her in the mirror shocked her.

The left side of Holly's face was bruised and she had a fat bottom lip with a gash down the left side. How did that even happen? Holly recalled her activities last night: she came home from work, drew herself a bath and poured one glass of wine. After that, she remembered curling up on the couch to watch one of the documentaries in her Netflix queue. She remembered waking up at one point and changing it to Friends before falling back asleep.

A horrifying thought crept into her mind. Had she been robbed? Holly ran to her front door. The door was locked and the dead bolt was in place. She looked around her living room, but nothing was out of place. She took a deep, calming breath in, but gasped as she felt pain shoot through her chest. She put her hand to her left side and winced again. Holly lifted her shirt up to expose the giant bruise covering her left side.

Something was not right. Could it be cancer? That would explain the bruises, but not the busted lip. She needed answers, and she needed them now. She grabbed her jacket, her phone, and her keys and all but ran out the door.

* * *

Holly sat in the ER room waiting for her nurse to come back. They'd looked her over, found another bruise across her back. They drew her blood and asked her really weird questions, like had she been attacked by a caucasian man wielding a 2x4 who was about 6'2", 200 pounds, with black hair, and medium build? She answered no, and the nurse walked out with a weird look on his face.

All the tests came back negative. Her x-ray was clear. The doctor had no answers for her.

Her nurse came back with her discharge papers. He stopped short as he was handing her the papers.

"I want to show you something. I think… I think it might be your answer," the nurse said.

"But all my results came back negative," Holly said.

"This isn't any sort of medical test. And actually, if I show you, I'd be breaking like a ton of privacy laws, but I think it's something you need to see," he replied.

Holly was hesitant, but she also wanted answers. She nodded her head and followed the man out of the room.

He lead her down a hallway, to a set of elevators. They went up several levels and walked down another hallway. They stopped at a private room, the door was open, but the curtain was drawn. The nurse gestured for her to wait, and then he walked into the room and whispered to the person inside.

Holly looked around the floor, it was quiet and the lights were dim. But then again, it was almost 2:00 am.

The nurse popped back out from behind the curtain, held his finger to his lips in a motion to tell her to keep quiet, and gestured for her to enter the room.

Holly walked slowly, not sure what she would find behind the curtain. She didn't even know what she should be expecting.

Holly opened the curtain enough to walk into the room and let it fall closed behind her. Laying on the bed was a woman. She had bleach blonde hair, piercing eyes, and a big, purple bruise on her face that matched Holly's perfectly. She also had a fat, busted lip, just like Holly.

Holly looked at the woman, and then back at the nurse.

"I'm sorry, but what is going on here?" Holly asked.

The nurse looked at Gail, as if asking for permission. The woman nodded her head.

"There are some people who believe that the unexplainable cuts and bruises we get are the result of injuries sustained by our soulmate," the man said.

"That's scientifically impossible," Holly replied.

"I was skeptical too, once. Until it happened to my sister. By chance she ran into a man with the exact same bruises on him, in the exact same locations. They tested the theory by having his best friend punch him in the arm. Sure enough, right after his bruise appeared, she got one in the same spot. All she'd been doing was sitting on the couch watching," he said. "You and Gail have the exact same bruises. Yours have no explanation."

Gail cleared her throat and both the nurse and Holly turned to look at her. She looked at the nurse and nodded her head toward the door. The man left the room. Silence ensued for what felt like hours. Gail just looked at Holly, as if she was trying to figure her out. Holly looked anywhere but at Gail.

"You're a nerd, aren't you?" Gail finally broke the silence.

"What?" Holly asked, incredulously.

"You like nerdy things, like science and math and shit. You're a nerd. You're probably some sort of scientist."

"I'm a forensic pathologist," Holly answered. She looked Gail over, trying to figure out what she was getting at.

"I'm sorry," Gail spoke softly.

Holly's mouth fell agape, she didn't understand the apology. She didn't know what this woman was trying to get at. Maybe she's high on pain meds? Holly thought.

The woman pressed on, "I'm sorry I caused you pain. I didn't—" She stopped to take a breath, which looked painful, and continued, "I didn't know that my injuries were affecting you. If I had, maybe… maybe I'd have been more careful. Okay, that's probably not true, but. I'm still sorry I hurt you."

Holly took half a step forward.

"You didn't—" Gail held her hand up, cutting Holly off mid-sentence.

"You got hurt because I got hurt," Gail stated.

"This is… this is crazy. I mean, it's not physically possible," Holly said. "There is no… this can't… how? How is this possible?"

"Magic? Fairies? The gods are messing with us? I don't know. All I know is that I got the shit kicked outta me and then Tim comes in here saying this woman has the exact same bruises I do. There is no logical explanation."

"It's not possible," Holly repeated.

"We could test it," Gail said.

"What?"

"Test it. Like, give me a bruise and see what happens to you," Gail said.

"No, that's ridiculous," Holly began, but Gail had already started pinching her arm and twisting the skin.

"What are you doing?" Holly asked, stepping toward the bed with her arm out, as if to stop the woman from hurting herself.

"I'm testing this theory. What do we have to lose?" Gail replied.

Holly stood there waiting, for what, she wasn't quite sure. Did she really think these matching bruises were from this woman? That this Gail was her soulmate? She is cute, Holly thought briefly before shaking her head. No, this was not possible. Soulmates are just something sold to society by movies and TV. She was a woman of science. This is not how the world works.

Gail watched to woman silently struggle with her thoughts. It'd been a couple minutes, so she looked back at her arm. There was a small red spot where she'd pinched herself.

"Look at your arm," Gail said.

Holly looked down, and sure enough, she had a small red spot in the same location.

"What the fuck?" Holly exclaimed, then quickly threw her hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to speak so loudly.

Gail laughed at the other woman's reaction, but that laugh was quickly followed by a wince at the pain it caused.

Holly rushed to the bed, but stopped short of reaching out towards the woman.

"Are you okay?" Holly asked. She was suddenly unsure of what to do with herself, so she fiddled with her fingers.

"Laughing hurts. Moving hurts. Breathing hurts. But I'll live, or at least that's what they tell me," Gail replied.

"This is… you know this is crazy, right?" Holly asked.

"Life is pretty crazy," Gail said, smirking.

Holly was staring at her hands as she continued to wring them. Gail reached out to stop the movement, but she did not release the other woman's hands.

"So," Gail began, "I, uh, I guess this means we're soulmates."

Holly stared at the other woman. She didn't even know where to begin with information this life-altering.

It was as if Gail read Holly's mind, because she patted the bed next to her and said, "Sit down. We should probably start by getting to know each other."

Without letting go of Gail's hand, Holly took a seat on the edge of the bed.

* * *

"Don't you dare tell Holly," Gail said. She followed her stern warning with a pointed look at her partner. Oliver just laughed at her and shook his head.

She was sitting in the back of an ambulance being checked over by paramedics. They gave her the all clear, warned her she'd be sore, and sent her on her way.

She and Oliver walked back to their squad. Well, Gail more limped than actually walked.

"You have got to stop chasing perps," Oliver told her. "I can't keep bailing you outta trouble."

"I had him the whole time," Gail said, climbing into the passenger seat.

"Only because he tripped," Oliver said, teasingly. "Even then he still managed to get the drop on you."

Gail crossed her arms defiantly over her chest and stared out the window while Oliver drove. She had been chasing a burglary suspect through a park when he tripped and fell. But before she could get on top of him to cuff him, he managed to get onto his side and he shoved her. Gail had stumbled backward and fell hard against a retaining wall. The back of her right leg hit with the top of the wall and she toppled over it onto the rock. A large lump was beginning to form on the back of her thigh and she had some minor scrapes on her arms and hands. She swore up and down she hadn't hit her head, but the sergeant had insisted she be checked out by EMS.

Oliver and Gail were still jokingly arguing as they walked into the precinct to finish up their paperwork when a stern voice rang out.

"GAIL ELIZABETH PECK!"

"Oh shit," Ollie said, barely stifling his giggle. "You got middle-named. You're in trouble!" he singsonged.

Gail froze in her tracks and her pale skin managed to pale even more. Slowly she turned to face her fate.

Holly made a beeline straight for her, grabbed her by the arm and marched her to an interrogation room.

"What the hell is that about?" Traci asked Oliver.

"Oh, Gail just got injured on the job and stupidly thought Holly wouldn't notice," Oliver said, chuckling.

* * *

Holly slammed the door behind her, cringing at the sound. She hadn't meant to be so forceful, but she was not happy. She locked the door.

"What the hell is this?" Holly asked, as she pulled her jeans down to reveal a massive bruise forming on the back of her thigh. She pulled up her sleeves to reveal several abrasions to her arms and hands.

"I'm fine, I swear," Gail answered. "I was chasing a perp and he pushed me. Best made me get checked out and the medics said I was fine. Okay?"

Holly still looked mad. Gail put on her best apology face and cautiously approached her wife.

"I promise you, I'm fine. Ollie had my back the whole time," Gail said. She put her hands on Holly's arms and looked her in the eye. "I'm okay."

Holly searched Gail's eyes for the truth, and when she found it, allowed her wife to hold her, her face finding its way into Gail's neck.

"Stop scaring me like that," Holly pleaded.

"I'm okay," Gail soothed as she rubbed Holly's back. "I promise."


End file.
